Targeted Leadership Development and Succession Planning through CPI 260® Certification

4 min. read

Human Resources (HR) professionals play a pivotal role in finding and selecting the right candidates for open positions and nurturing a harmonious work environment. Luckily, many HR professionals can leverage modern tools and methodologies that aid in making informed decisions. One such valuable tool is the CPI 260^®psychometric assessment, designed to help organizations unlock the potential of their workforce and build a stronger, more useful pipeline. Here’s why HR professionals should consider getting certified to use the CPI 260 assessment.

What is the CPI 260 assessment?

The CPI 260 assessment is an in-depth personality assessment that provides valuable insights into an individual's strengths, weaknesses, and potential areas for development. It’s built on the solid foundation of the widely recognized and validated California Psychological Inventory (CPI) assessment. The CPI 260 assessment enables HR and talent development professionals to find and develop high-potential employees, making it an essential tool for your investment in employee training and development.

Enhanced hiring decisions

Recruiting the right people for the right positions is crucial for organizational success. The CPI 260 assessment enables HR professionals to gain deep insights into candidates' personality traits, values, and work preferences. Armed with this information, you can identify candidates who align well with the organization's and the position’s requirements, leading to more successful hires, higher employee engagement and reduced turnover.

Leadership and executive development

The best leaders inspire and motivate their teams to achieve greatness. With the CPI 260 assessment, you’ll be able to identify individuals' leadership potential and help nurture their skills. This enables organizations to identify high potential employees for succession planning, groom strong leaders internally, and reduce the need for external leadership recruitment. In addition, managing your talent pipeline fosters a culture of growth within the organization, where employees and potential candidates can see the possibility of advancement.

Personal and professional growth

The CPI 260 tool is not only beneficial for recruitment and leadership development, but also for individual growth. HR professionals can use the assessment results to create personalized development plans for employees, focusing on areas for improvement and leveraging their strengths. By giving employees individual development plans, employees feel supported and invested in, leading to increased job satisfaction and higher retention rates.

Benefits of Using CPI 260 in Organizations

Objective decision making

We all have biases. However, traditional recruitment and performance evaluation methods may be influenced by biases or personal opinions. The CPI 260 assessment provides an objective and standardized framework to assess candidates and employees, minimizing subjective judgments and promoting fairness.

Tailored training and development

HR professionals can design targeted training and development programs tailored to individuals' specific needs using the CPI 260. This way, you can ensure that employees receive the support needed to enhance their skills and excel in their roles.

Improved employee engagement

Understanding employees' personalities, strengths, and preferences fosters a deeper sense of engagement and commitment to the organization for the employee. By leveraging the insights from the CPI 260, you’re creating a more inclusive and supportive work environment, where employees feel valued and understood.

Retention and succession planning

High employee turnover can be costly to an organization. Not to mention it’s disruptive to teams, projects and organizational progress. The CPI 260 assessment helps HR professionals identify employees who are a good fit for key roles. You can also more easily find those with growth potential. This aids in succession planning and ensuring a steady pipeline of talent within the organization.

Educating others on the benefits of CPI 260 certification

While you may be ready to get CPI certified, your manager or others may not be convinced of the benefits to the organization yet.
Below is a sample letter that you can copy and tailor to fit your needs if you’d like to share with others the many benefits that using the CPI assessment can bring to your talent development programs, your succession planning, and your leaders.

Subject: CPI Certification Program

To:

From:

I’ve been thinking about our in-house training and development programs, especially regarding our strategic priority of [insert specific topic from organization’s people-development strategy].

Could I recommend a resource to help us achieve these goals?

It’s the CPI™ (California Psychological Inventory™) assessment, which is aimed directly at developing leaders, executives, and high potentials. Here’s some information and a short video. 

However, to use it with our leaders, we’d need to hire a certified practitioner or get a/an [insert name of organization] employee certified to administer it. I’d very much like to be considered for attending CPI certification and becoming the CPI practitioner within [insert name of organization], please.  

If this was approved, we’d be able to use the CPI assessment for all our talent development and succession planning. This will:

• Build consistency in the way we develop our people.
• Maximize our return on investment.
• Save money in the long run because I’d be the facilitator—no need to hire anyone external. 

On a personal note, I’d be thrilled to use this certification to help [insert name of organization] achieve our goals and continue my own career development. 

The next available dates are [insert next two available dates]. What do you think? Could we meet to discuss this?

Kind regards,